At a media event on Wednesday, Apple unveiled new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models (and new ways to pay for them), the new iPad Pro, a big update to its Apple TV media streamer, the latest versions of its mobile operating systems, and more. But you don’t need to know, or care about, every little detail—that’s what we’re here for. We went hands-on with all the new devices and got a look at the new software; here are the most important bits.

Table of contents

Apple TV

The new Apple TV, which looks like a taller version of the current model, will offer more functionality thanks to better hardware and a new version of iOS that Apple calls tvOS. You’ll still get all the current streaming options, but the newly added App Store could be a game changer—perhaps literally, considering that the Apple TV can now play games, which in our hands-on time at the event were genuinely fun.

Other big changes include a redesigned Bluetooth remote with a microphone for Siri support and a touchpad, and universal search that works across multiple apps and streaming services. The new model is due in late October and will be available in two configurations: a $149 model with 32 GB of storage and a $199 model with 64 GB—all those games and apps need to reside somewhere. (The current Apple TV will remain available for $69, but won’t get most of the new features.)

The all-new, and far more full-featured, remote control uses Bluetooth instead of infrared, which means you no longer need a line of sight to the Apple TV to control it. Included on the remote are a touchpad, physical buttons for basic functions (pause/play, home), and volume buttons for controlling your TV’s volume using a built-in IR emitter. The remote also works as a Wii-style motion controller for games, thanks to a built-in gyroscope and accelerometer. (You can also use a Bluetooth keyboard and any Made For iPhone, or MFi, Bluetooth game controller.) Like Amazon and NVIDIA, Apple is integrating gaming into its media streamer, though with such a large library of existing iPhone and iPad games that developers can port, Apple is much more likely to succeed in this area.

Siri, which you can access by using your voice (with a button on the remote control) or by typing into the on-screen search box, can search across apps or channels to help you find content. You can search by title, genre, actor, and more, and Siri even offers contextual searching: Say “Show me movies with Sean Connery,” for instance, to see everything with that actor available across channels; then say “Show me only James Bond movies” to narrow the results. At launch, Siri is limited to searching iTunes, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, and Showtime, in contrast to Roku’s similar search across more than 20 channels with voice search via the Roku 3’s remote (or through an iOS or Android app). However, Apple promises support for more sources as developers release apps designed for the new device.

Also notable is the new Apple TV’s upgraded hardware, which should provide a smoother experience, enough power for games, plenty of wireless bandwidth for streaming, and connectivity for low-power Bluetooth devices. Indeed, in limited testing at Apple’s media event, Wirecutter staff found the new Apple TV’s interface to be more responsive than that of the current model, especially when moving between screens and navigating media. Games play as smoothly on a 70-inch TV as they do on the iPad Air 2. And you can now overlay content, such as sports scores or weather, on top of whatever you’re currently watching or playing. One disappointing change, however, is that the new model loses optical audio output, so you won’t be able to hook it directly to a receiver or soundbar using that connection method.

Until we have hands-on time with Apple TV apps and content, evaluating the updated Apple TV against the competition is difficult. As before, heavy iTunes users will probably want an Apple TV for easier access to content they already own. And sending content via AirPlay from an iOS device to the Apple TV is still a compelling feature on its own. But if all you want is AirPlay or iTunes streaming, the current (old) model is now available for $69, and the $70 Roku 2 currently offers more content channels. Again, the real key will the App Store: If it succeeds, as is likely, the AppleTV might be worth the price premium even for non-iTunes users.

iPhone 6s and 6s Plus

Like Apple’s past “s”-generation iPhones, the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus offer enough improvements and new features to tempt you to upgrade, but not quite enough to have you lining up on day one if you already own last year’s 6 or 6 Plus. On top of the expected minor internal improvements, Apple has added a new way to interact via a pressure-sensitive screen technology the company calls 3D Touch, and it has significantly improved the rear- and front-facing cameras.

These changes are probably not worth tearing up a two-year contract to upgrade, but for owners of older phones, they make our favorite smartphones even more appealing. (If you do upgrade from a 6 or 6 Plus, your existing accessories and cases will work fine with the 6s or 6s Plus.)

The iPhone 6s in Rose Gold. Dan Frakes

The biggest change is the addition of the new 3D Touch screen. Essentially an in-screen version of the Force Touch technology found on Apple’s latest laptop trackpads, 3D Touch goes beyond multitouch gestures and adds pressure sensitivity to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus screen. And unlike the Apple Watch screen, the new iPhone screen recognizes different degrees of pressure.

We expected 3D Touch to be a bit gimmicky, but after using it for about 10 minutes in the media demonstration area at Apple’s event, we were impressed. You go through a slight learning curve as you figure out when 3D Touch works and when it doesn’t—you end up pressing everything, just to see what happens—but you quickly get used to the idea of, say, pressing Mail’s icon on the Home screen to initiate a Mail-only Spotlight search, pressing a URL to see a live preview without leaving the current app, or pressing a date and time in an email message to see what your calendar would look like with that event scheduled (press harder to confirm the time). After those 10 minutes using 3D Touch, we found ourselves trying to use it out of habit—already—on our “old” iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models.

The iPhone’s camera sets it apart from most other phones—it’s currently the most popular camera in the world—and the new models promise to have the best cameras yet. Each sports a 12-megapixel iSight (rear) camera, with faster and more accurate autofocus and more accurate colors, along with 4K video recording. (Optical image stabilization is still exclusive to the 6 Plus.)

We suspect these improvements will seem relatively minor for people who already own an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus; it’s people upgrading from a 5s or an older phone who will see dramatic differences. An interesting new feature is Live Photos, which automatically adds a few seconds of motion before and after each image; 3D Touch lets you view that motion by pressing a photo. It’s another feature that sounds a bit gimmicky but works pretty well in practice, and we can see the appeal, especially to parents. Apple says that developers such as Facebook will be supporting Live Photos soon.

The bigger camera change for many people will be that the front FaceTime HD camera now shoots at 5 megapixels, a huge jump from last year’s 1.2-megapixel camera. The front camera can also use the screen as a flash, implementing Apple’s True Tone technology to match the ambient light. In other words, you’ll be able to take much better selfies.

Apple claims the new A9 processor in the 6s and 6s Plus is up to 70 percent faster for CPU tasks than the A8 processor in the current iPhone 6 models, and 90 percent faster for GPU tasks. This improvement should mean faster app load times, better performance in CPU- and GPU-intensive apps (including games), and a generally snappier experience. In our hands-on time with the 6s and 6s Plus, we didn’t notice dramatically better performance, but we haven’t found the 6 and 6 Plus to be too slow, either. (Apple never talks about RAM publicly, but we’ve seen unverified reports that the new iPhone “s” models have 2 GB of RAM. If so, this is an important change, as our biggest complaint about the iPhone 6 Plus is that its 1 GB of RAM simply isn’t sufficient to drive the huge screen and still have enough left for running apps well.)

Other internal changes include more-accurate and all-day activity monitoring thanks to a new, integrated motion coprocessor. Also always on, by default, is the “Hey Siri” voice feature that lets you trigger the virtual assistant without having to hold the Home button, so you no longer need to keep the phone connected to power for this feature to work. (You can disable the feature if you have several new iPhones in the house or in the same office.)

Despite all these new features and faster components, Apple says the new phones have the same battery life as the current 6 and 6 Plus models. The company also added an improved Touch ID sensor that it claims is up to twice as fast at authenticating your fingerprint, upgraded to stronger screen glass, and improved LTE and Wi-Fi speeds.

Aside from a new Rose Gold color option, the new handsets are pretty much identical to last year’s models on the outside, although they’re a tiny bit thicker and made out of a sturdier, 7000-series aluminum similar to the material used for the Apple Watch Sport’s case—rumors are, the bodies are even less prone to bending than before. Apple lists the iPhone 6s as being 0.2 millimeters taller, 0.1 mm wider, and 0.2 mm thicker than the iPhone 6; the iPhone 6s Plus is 0.1 mm taller, 0.1 mm thicker, and 0.2 mm wider than the 6 Plus.

An Apple representative told The Wirecutter that existing cases should fit the new versions; we tested a single iPhone 6 Plus case on the 6s Plus at Apple’s media event, and it indeed fit perfectly.

These differences should be negligible, and an Apple representative told The Wirecutter that existing cases should fit the new versions; we tested a single iPhone 6 Plus case on the 6s Plus at Apple’s media event, and it indeed fit perfectly. We’ll be testing our previous picks and any new models that come out, including Apple’s updated leather (6s, 6s Plus) and silicone (6s, 6s Plus) cases.

The iPhone 6s starts at $199 for the 16GB model on a two-year contract, and the 6s Plus starts at $299. We don’t recommend those base models, though—16 GB simply isn’t enough storage for a phone that takes 12-megapixel photos and 4K video—so you’re likely looking at $100 more at the least. If you don’t want to go with a big screen, the iPhone 5s is sticking around, now free on contract. You can also choose the original iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus starting at $99 and $199, respectively.

iPhone Upgrade Program

The prices above assume a two-year carrier contract, but such contracts are gradually dying out. To pay for new phones, many carriers now offer installment plans, described as “upgrade plans,” that spread the full price of the phone out, usually over 24 months. For the first time, Apple is offering a similar approach in its own stores with the iPhone Upgrade Program. You choose your phone—initially, an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus—and carrier, and you pay a monthly installment to use the phone. The twists with Apple’s plan, in contrast to carrier plans, are that it includes the cost of AppleCare+, Apple’s extended support and warranty program, and that the phone is unlocked (so you can switch carriers if you wish).

The two-year plans start at $32.41 a month for a 16GB iPhone 6s and go up from there. You make no down payment and pay no financing charge: The 24 scheduled payments sum exactly to the price of the unlocked version of the iPhone plus $129 for AppleCare+. However, after 12 payments, you can upgrade to a new phone by turning in the old one and starting a new two-year program; you can repeat this process as often as every 12 months.

If you like to upgrade your phone every year and always buy AppleCare+, the Upgrade Program is a decent option, especially if you want an unlocked phone (so you can switch carriers at any time) and don’t want to deal with having to sell your phone every time you upgrade. But it isn’t the obvious best option, as some people would lead you to believe.

If you don’t want AppleCare+ or similar carrier-provided insurance, your carrier’s plans are likely cheaper for yearly upgrades (especially considering promotional pricing), as you’re paying only for the phone, not for AppleCare+.

If you do want an extended warranty of some sort, and you plan to upgrade before two years are up, Apple’s program is likely a better deal: Carrier insurance plans cost $7 to $11 per month, versus $5.38 per month for AppleCare+. Granted, AppleCare+ and carrier insurance plans aren’t identical, as carrier plans cover loss and theft but have a higher deductible while AppleCare+ includes Genius Bar and technical support, but they are roughly comparable.

The worst deal would be to use a carrier lease plan to upgrade yearly but purchase AppleCare+ for each new phone, as then you’re paying nearly $11 per month ($129 divided by 12) for AppleCare+. We’ll be looking at the fine print to see if we missed anything in our calculations.

On the other hand, while the cost differences between leasing through Apple versus leasing through your carrier are very close, the Upgrade Program is almost twice as expensive as buying and selling your phone every year (even including the cost of AppleCare+). Over the course of six years, the Upgrade Plan would cost you $2,333.52, whereas Lifehacker’s calculations show that buying the latest iPhone (at the lowest storage capacity) outright and selling it before upgrading every year for six years would cost you just $1,014 ($1,788 including yearly AppleCare+ coverage). That’s not to say that the Upgrade Program is a bad deal—especially if you don’t want to deal with keeping your phone in pristine condition—but as with all lease/finance plans, you’re paying a premium compared with doing it yourself each year.

iPad Pro

The iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard. Dan Frakes

Apple expanded its iPad lineup in a big way with the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro, available in November. Aimed squarely at creative types (thanks to a custom stylus), business and productivity power users (thanks to a special keyboard), and serious media consumers, the iPad Pro is both the biggest and the most expensive iPad ever. If you’ve ever thought, “I’d get so much more out of my iPad if it was a lot bigger,” or “I really want a touchscreen laptop that uses iOS,” or “I want my iPad to also be my graphics tablet,” this is the tablet for you, but we suspect it’s overkill for most people. The only device currently on the market comparable to the Pro is Microsoft’s similarly priced and specced Surface Pro 3 (itself soon due for a big refresh), which also attempts to bridge the gap between laptop and tablet to capture a hotly contested hybrid device market.

The new iPad is physically much larger than the iPad Air (which has a 9.7-inch screen), but the Pro’s display also has the highest resolution of any iPad yet, at 2732 by 2048 pixels. That’s a whopping 5.6 million pixels—which Apple is quick to point out is even more pixels than you’ll get with a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. It’s enough pixels that, using iOS 9’s new multitasking features, you can fit two app screens, side by side, and each will be nearly as big as if it were running on an iPad Air 2 (just as tall, but a bit narrower). Put another way, the screen is big enough that the on-screen keyboard is the same width and height as a standard hardware keyboard.

The Pro is also the most powerful iPad in Apple’s lineup from a performance standpoint, thanks to a new A9X processor: The company says the Pro offers twice the processor and graphics performance, twice the memory bandwidth, and twice the storage performance of the iPad Air 2. It sports the same cameras as the Air 2 (an 8-megapixel iSight camera on the back and a 1.2-megapixel FaceTime HD camera on the front), but four speakers—the iPad automatically adjusts to give you stereo audio whichever way you hold the device—that Apple says provide three times the maximum volume of the Air 2. An Adobe press release, since edited, mentioned 4 GB of RAM, but Apple doesn’t officially comment on that spec.

Despite the better performance, Apple says the Pro gets the same 10-hour battery life as the Air 2, though the Pro is slightly thicker (6.9 mm versus 6.1 mm) and heavier (1.57 pounds versus 0.96 pound). Still, after using it at Apple’s event, we were surprised by how thin and light it felt given its huge (for a tablet) screen.

The Pro isn’t going to be quite as convenient to carry around as an iPad Air 2 or an iPad mini, but we think many people may treat the Pro more like a laptop or high-end graphics tablet: They’ll use it at home, in the office, or in another work location, putting it in a backpack or carrying case when traveling. Apple is even making its own keyboard case to offer a more laptop-like experience, and during the media event, the company invited representatives from Microsoft and Adobe on stage to demonstrate Office and Creative Suite apps, respectively, on the iPad Pro.

In other words, while the iPad mini is for people who do a lot of reading on their tablet, and the Air is a great full-size tablet that you can also use for some work tasks, the primary audience for the iPad Pro is likely to be people who want to use their tablet more like a laptop, people who work in creative fields, and people who simply need a massive screen.

Going along with its size and power, the iPad Pro is also more expensive than any other iPad: $799 for 32 GB of storage with Wi-Fi only, $949 for 128 GB with Wi-Fi only, and $1,079 for 128 GB with Wi-Fi and LTE. At the same time, considering its power, size, and capabilities, comparing the iPad Pro with a high-end graphics tablet such as Wacom’s $1,000 Cintiq 13 HD Touch rather than with consumer-focused iPads might make more sense. We look forward to testing it soon.

iPad Pro Smart Keyboard and Pencil

Apple also announced two new accessories exclusively for the iPad Pro, the Smart Keyboard and the Apple Pencil. The $169 Smart Keyboard is a Smart Cover–like iPad case with a thin keyboard built in. The keys use the same new butterfly mechanism found in the 12-inch MacBook’s keyboard, but instead of wide, plastic key surfaces, the Smart Keyboard has fabric-covered keys that are a bit smaller. (The keyboard is roughly the same size overall, but you’ll find more space between the Smart Keyboard’s smaller keys.)

The Smart Keyboard’s fabric-covered keys. Dan Frakes

The keyboard is powered by and communicates with the iPad through a new Smart Connector on one of the iPad Pro’s longer edges—it doesn’t require Bluetooth or other wireless connections, or batteries of its own. We spent some hands-on time with the keyboard case, and we think it feels better than the similarly designed Surface keyboard, and even a bit better than the new MacBook’s keyboard: The spacing between keys on the Smart Keyboard gives it a better tactile feel than the keyboard on the MacBook. We do wonder how the fabric covering will wear over time, though it at least seems easy to clean. We’ll be comparing it against third-party options, which have already been announced, as soon as we can.

The $99 Apple Pencil is a stylus that works only with the iPad Pro (unlike Microsoft’s analogous active Surface Pen, which also works with the standard Surface 3 tablet). According to Apple, the tablet’s touch subsystem starts scanning twice as quickly when you’re using the Pencil as when you’re using your finger, allowing for faster, more-precise, lag-free drawing. When used with a Pencil-optimized app, the Pencil also provides pressure, angle, and orientation information to allow you to make strokes of varying thickness and weight. The Pencil has a rechargeable battery—it charges from your iPad using a Lightning-connector plug hidden in the stylus’s “eraser” end—that lasts for 12 hours on a charge. Like the iPad Pro itself, the Pencil seems best for illustrators and designers.

iPad mini 4 and iPad Air 2

The iPad mini didn’t get much attention during Apple’s event, but it did receive a significant update in the form of the iPad mini 4, and that update returns us to the days when the decision between buying a full-size iPad or an iPad mini came mostly down to size.

We recommended against buying the iPad mini 3, because it was essentially the same as the 2013 iPad mini 2 and significantly inferior to the 2014 iPad Air 2. However, the iPad mini 4 brings the smaller iPad nearly up to par with the Air line: According to Apple, the iPad mini 4 is essentially the same device as the iPad Air 2, just smaller—the only real internal difference appears to be an A8 processor in the iPad mini 4 (versus an A8X in the Air 2), likely due to heat considerations. The A8 has one fewer core than the A8X, and it’s a bit slower than the A8X in both CPU and graphics performance. (The iPad Air 2 got no updates this week. It’s apparently sticking around in its current incarnation for now.)

In addition to gaining all the performance and features of the Air 2—compared with the mini 3, the mini 4 has a speedier processor, better cameras and camera features, and faster Wi-Fi—the mini 4 is slightly thinner than its predecessor at 6.1 mm, and weighs slightly less at 0.61 pound. Prices for Wi-Fi–only models are $399 for a version with 16 GB of storage (which we don’t recommend), $499 for 64 GB, and $599 for 128 GB. LTE (cellular data) support adds $130 to each capacity. The updated models are available now.

All of this means, as mentioned above, that if you’re trying to decide whether to buy an iPad Air or an iPad mini, the choice mainly comes down to size: Do you want a bigger screen, or do you want a smaller, slightly lighter device?

The iPad mini was previously our top pick for a tablet, but last year we switched our recommendation to the iPad Air 2, partly because the mini was a generation behind, but also because the Air 2 was light enough that it was almost as easy to hold as the mini. Judging from our hands-on time with the iPad mini 4 at Apple’s event, we suspect we’ll continue to recommend the Air 2 to people who really want a tablet, especially since today’s larger smartphones are edging ever closer to the size of the mini. But we’re looking forward to testing the mini 4 thoroughly.

iOS 9 and watchOS 2

Apple didn’t say much about iOS 9 or watchOS 2 at the event that it hadn’t already publicly revealed, except to announce that both will be available on September 16.

What iOS 9 means for you is that your iPhone or iPad will get better search and (most likely) faster performance; iPad Air 2 owners will also gain some nifty multitasking features. And because of a new way Apple is implementing iOS updates, you won’t have to delete photos and podcasts just to install it: iOS 9 will require only 1.3 GB of free space, as opposed to the 4.6 GB needed for updating to iOS 8. For more on iOS 9, read our WWDC recap from June.

watchOS 2 is a major update that directly addresses many of the complaints early adopters have had about the Apple Watch, promising to make existing Watches dramatically better. The biggest improvement will be native Apple Watch apps. Current watch apps (Apple says the app store has 10,000) are extensions of counterparts on your iPhone; the watch app must communicate with its phone counterpart to perform most tasks, which often results in frustratingly poor performance. watchOS 2 lets developers create apps that run directly on the watch itself and even access the Internet directly via Wi-Fi. Apps will also gain direct access to more of the Watch’s hardware features. The result should be faster launching, data-load times, and overall performance—and even the capability to work when your phone isn’t nearby.

You’ll also get new watch faces with third-party information displays, photo backgrounds, public transportation info in the Maps app, a new Nightstand mode that lets you use your watch as an alarm clock, and more. For more on watchOS 2, check out our preview in our Apple Watch guide.

Apple Watch

The company made only a few small changes to the Apple Watch hardware lineup, all aesthetic. Apple added anodized Gold and Rose Gold finishes to the Apple Watch Sport, in both the 38 mm and 42 mm sizes, at the same prices as existing models. Eight new Sport Bands (38 mm, 42 mm) were announced as part of a fall collection, including a PRODUCT(RED) version. The stainless-steel Apple Watch now has a configuration of the Space Black case with a black Sport Band (38 mm, 42 mm). The Classic Buckle (38 mm, 42 mm) also underwent tweaks and now features a two-tone design.

Apple also announced the Apple Watch Hermès collaboration, which is great news if you want a $1,100-plus strap to go with your $10,000 Apple Watch Edition, but that will be of strictly aspirational interest for most people.

We help support the hundreds of hours that go into our evaluations through affiliate commissions on purchases made through our links. We’re committed to publishing unbiased guides that clearly detail our decision-making criteria to our readers, but we just want you to know.

Here's how to support our writers and our work. For more on our ethics, ideas and how we work, read this. We obtain the products we review through a mixture of buying our own and working with companies to borrow review units. Our policy is to return or donate products after we’re finished working with them.

Find an error?: Also, If you notice a guide that needs a little freshening up, or has errors, please tweet us at @wirecutter or email us at notes@thewirecutter.com and we'll fix it. Thank you.